The world had become a prison.
Not of stone, not of steel…
But of magic.
I screamed.
Purple fire danced along my arms, wrapping around me like serpents, coiling and lashing against the invisible bonds that held me still.
Merlin's spell was… perfect. Complex beyond anything I had ever faced.
A magical circle of incomprehensible geometry glowed around me, golden and white, runes spinning in impossible patterns, pouring into my body and freezing every fiber of my being.
I couldn't move.
I couldn't even breathe properly.
And yet, my mind… still burned.
I forced my eyes open.
He stood there, staff glowing, eyes alight with that cold, infinite power he always carried.
"Morgan," he said, his voice calm but absolute, echoing in my mind. "I will not kill you. You are my apprentice. Unlike a little sister… I cannot kill you. But you will not harm Camelot again."
I spat on the ground beneath me, fury coursing through my veins.
"How dare you!" I hissed. "You… you mundane, simple creature! You are nothing! Nothing! You cannot do this to me, Merlin!"
The golden runes intensified, embedding into my flesh and bone, twisting me in place.
My shadow magic surged wildly around me, forming jagged, ethereal spears, whips, and tendrils that lashed out at the invisible walls, but they bounced harmlessly off the circle.
I screamed, my voice merging with the sound of shattering shadows. Purple fireballs erupted from my hands, hitting the air, exploding in bursts of shadow and energy, each one devoured by the protective spell Merlin had woven.
"You will remain here, Morgan," he said. "Until you learn control… or I am forced to undo you completely."
I felt my body disintegrating under the weight of his magic. Slowly, piece by piece, I was being pulled into the center of the magical circle.
Shadows twisted, claws of energy ripped at him, trying to strike, but I couldn't even move my fingers.
My staff, Skathe-Hrün, slammed against the circle, pulsing with my purple fire, but Merlin's spell absorbed it, feeding the energy back into the pattern.
I gritted my teeth.
I could fix this.
Time.
Yes… time.
I reached for my sand timer shield, the one that allowed me to rewind the impossible, to turn back the flow of fate itself.
I could feel it, waiting, dormant in my Soul Gem, whispering possibilities. Rewind… undo… reverse everything to the beginning of this war.
But before I could act, Merlin's staff slammed down, firing a beam of golden energy that wrapped around me.
It wasn't just attack—it was containment.
A force like molten iron poured through my veins, freezing me from the inside out.
I couldn't even trigger the sand timer.
I roared. Purple flames erupted from my soul, turning the air around me into a storm of shadow and fire. I hurled spell after spell, bolts of jagged energy, arcs of purple lightning, shadow tendrils twisting outward—but all of them were absorbed, twisted, and redirected back into my form, burning me with every attempt.
Merlin's voice rang in my ears, calm yet terrifying.
"Morgan… you are my apprentice. You are too strong, too wild, too reckless. But you will learn, or this power will destroy you—and everything you love. I will not kill you. But I will trap you, until you understand."
The sealing magic shifted. Slowly, I felt my essence being moved through space, dragged from the battlefield, pulled into a strange pocket of golden and white energy.
I vanished.
And appeared in the sealed location.
Darkness surrounded me. Not shadow—but the absence of light, of magic, of possibility. The air hummed with the pulse of Merlin's control.
I was trapped.
But not broken.
I raised my hand, and even as the sealing circle writhed and burned against me, I called to my magic.
Purple fire coiled, tendrils stretched, arcs of shadow forming into blades and spikes. My staff appeared in my hand, materializing from the darkness itself.
"I will destroy you, Merlin," I hissed, my voice echoing across the sealed chamber. "I will destroy all of you! No matter where you go… I will find you. I will end everything you love. And I swear… I will rise again!"
Merlin's reply was not verbal.
It was immediate.
The golden light flared.
The sealed chamber shook.
I lunged forward, shadows spiraling into the walls, striking, smashing, bursting into arcs of purple lightning.
Merlin fired back, golden beams slicing through the shadows, exploding in waves of energy that made the entire chamber tremble.
We clashed.
Staff against staff. Magic against magic.
Purple and gold flares illuminated the darkness as energy explosions rocked the room.
Shadows moved as if alive, curling into jagged weapons.
Golden energy pulsed, bending reality around me, twisting the floor into impossible geometry.
I spun, vaulting off a wall that wasn't really there, and slashed my staff downward. Shadows erupted, creating spectral blades that carved through the golden beams—but Merlin was faster, conjuring shields midair, dispersing each strike.
"Too much anger, Morgan," he said. "Focus, or you will destroy yourself."
I roared.
Purple fire erupted into a tornado of shadow, spinning around me, my staff at the center. Energy blasts shot outward, carving holes in the chamber walls, collapsing impossible stone, shattering the ground.
Merlin met it beam for beam.
We moved faster than the eye could follow, teleporting through the sealed chamber, phasing across planes of reality, striking and countering in a dizzying dance of magic and power.
Even restrained, even trapped…
I refused to fall.
The battle had just begun.